Sony's 3G project with Al Jazeera worth a whole lot more "Gs": historic deal signed for $143 million Monday

Sony signed a historic $143 million deal with Qatar-based Al Jazeera to build a hitech 3G broadcast infrastructure for the media network.

Sony Professional Solutions MEA[2] said it has signed a landmark $143 million project with Al Jazeera Media Network (AJMN)[3] to build a hitech 3G broadcast infrastructure for the Doha-based group. Sony Professional is a leading supplier of AV/IT solutions to businesses across a wide variety of sectors including media and broadcast, video security and retail, transport & large venue markets. The project involves building state of the art 3G broadcast infrastructure, including a pioneering network wide Broadcast IT project, providing unified file-based workflows for News and Programme planning, production, transmission and archiving. The facility will have multiple High Definition studios, and Global Media Management System (GMMS)[4] offering a collaborative workflow for digital assets within the network thereby increasing the efficiency of content management, distribution and delivery on air. Commenting on the collaboration, Mostefa Souag, the acting director general of AJMN said, “This project will be a major boon to our work worldwide. It will enhance communication and transfer of information from and to our 70 bureaus, and between our channels especially Al Jazeera Arabic, English, Balkans and America." "For the nature of our work – brilliant journalists gathering news across the globe and providing it quickly to viewers – this deal will be significant for us at Al Jazeera and for the public," he stated. Robert Sherman, the managing director of Sony Professional Solutions MEA, said, [5]“Once complete the project will enable Al Jazeera to operate in a highly effective manner, assisting the network to achieve their significant growth plans. The solutions we are providing are truly state of the art and will be a great example of how advanced the broadcast facilities in the Middle East have become.” With over 25 years’ experience in delivering innovative market-leading products, Sony Professional Solutions[6] delivers products, systems and applications to enable the creation, manipulation and distribution of digital audio-visual content that add value to businesses and their customers, he added